All Saints,
Knettishall, is one of a number of
churches in north Suffolk that fell into
disuse and dereliction in the early years
of the 20th century. At least one of
them, Linstead
Magna, has now
disappeared completely. Little Livermere is
a wild ruin, and Stanton
St John a sanitised shell
in a cemetery.

All Saints has
suffered a kinder fate. Its interior
furnishings were dispersed in 1933,
mainly to Riddlesworth, half a mile away
over the Norfolk border. Cautley visited
All Saints that year, and found it
smothered in ivy, and its thatched roof
decayed.

Cautley made an inventory of the
fittings that were taken out, which is probably
worth repeating here:A fine set of Charles I arms
with the 1632 overpainted 1666, a Stuart pulpit,
the three-sided Laudian communion rails, a late
Stuart holy table and font cover, an 18th century
chair, and two painted panels, one of St Edmund
and one of St Peter. Cautley thought these had
originally come from a reredos. The font went to
Lakenham, also in Norfolk. At that time, the
decalogue boards, dated 2nd May 1789, still hung
in the chancel.

The church was marooned on the Coney
Weston USAF base throughout the Second World War
and into the fifties. Pevsner, visiting in the
late fifties, found it disused and decaying, and
Cautley's editors found it the same in the early
seventies.

Today, All Saints sits proudly on
the edge of the former airbase, its tower
gap-toothed but secure, and a large house built
into the lower walls of the former nave. The
original windows have mostly been reglazed;
obviously, you wouldn't want too many churches to
end up looking like this, but it is all done
rather well, with a row of dormer windows built
into the roof.

The owners allow
pre-arranged access to those wishing to
tend the handful of surviving graves, but
otherwise, this is private land. Never
mind, because the road across the former
airbase passes right beside the western
face of the 15th century tower. This is a
curious place, incidentally. There are no
hedges on the former airfield, but a
thick band of conifers has been planted
along the line of the runway. It must
look spectacular from the air. On the
ground, it forms a wall across this
borderland, cutting the parish off from
the rest of Suffolk. The Norfolk border
lies a few hundred yards beyond All
Saints, and across the valley you can see
half a dozen fine towers. But they are
all in Norfolk.